[ 2017-05-09 ]

Members of TEGLU want the taskforce to deal with piracy of fabrics in the local market

Textile workers threaten to picket Trade Ministry
Members of the Textile, Garment and Leather
Employees Union (TEGLU) have threatened to picket
the Ministry of Trade and Industry next week to
demand for the anti-piracy textile taskforce to be
reactivated.

They want the taskforce to deal with piracy of
fabrics in the local market and will picket the
premises to pressure government to heed their
call.

The move, according to the General Secretary of
the union, Abraham Koomson, will send a strong
indication to political leaders that the time has
come to crack the whip on pirates to prevent the
local textile industry from collapsing.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry set up the
anti-piracy taskforce in 2010 to halt the
activities of pirates. The taskforce which
included personnel drawn from the security
agencies, the Ghana Revenue Authority and the
Ghana Union of Traders Association tackled the
problems associated with piracy of the local
textile industry. According to the group, things
were getting better when the taskforce was
operational.

However, they said since the taskforce stopped its
operations, the pirates had returned. Mr Koomson,
speaking to Class News, maintained government must
act immediately.

“…We even went to parliament in 2014 with this
grievance and they said, ‘OK, once you have
already reported to the Ministry of Trade and
Industry, let’s see what happens and then if
there is any fallout we will take it up. So our
intention is to even picket parliament and the
Ministry of Trade and Industry because they
continue to tell us stories. We have written
several times, we’ve been going there. Sometimes
they pretend they’ve not seen you. …I will
appeal to the President to also make sure that the
work attitude of people in some of these
ministries [are] checked otherwise the picketing
and demonstrations will continue without ceasing.
So ours is going to come off and I’m working on
the letters…” he stated.

Source - classfmonline.com

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